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Active landfills in Los Angeles County receive approximately 20,000 tons of non-hazardous solid waste each day.
About 80% or approximately 16,000 tons per day is disposed of and the remainder is reused or recycled. This
represents about half of the total solid waste disposed of by the residents and businesses of the L.A. County.

The City of Los Angeles disposes of about 3,400 tons of refuse per day (down from 5,500 tons in 1990) in the
Calabasas, Chiquita Canyon, Lancaster and Sunshine Landfills. The City owns and operates six inactive landfills:
Bishop Canyon (Academy Rd, Los Angeles - closed 1969), Branford (Sun Valley - closed 1961), Gaffey Street
(San Pedro - closed 1963), Lopez Canyon (Lake View Terrace - closed 1996), Sheldon/Arleta (Sun Valley -
closed 1974), Toyon Canyon (Griffith Park - closed 1985).

Editor's Note: If you want to experience an "other-worldly" place, visit your local landfill.

Active Landfills & Recycling Centers

*The Commerce Refuse-to-Energy Facility produces power seven days a week, 24 hours per day. An average of 100 trucks per day
deliver loads Monday through Friday during normal working hours. The Facility burns an average of 360 tons of trash per day and
generates a net ten megawatts of electricity for sale to the Southern California Edison Company. This is enough electricity for 20,000
Southern California homes.

    County Sanitation Districts Solid Waste Facilities

Map from Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts

The Commerce Refuse-to-Energy Facility and the Southeast Resource Recovery Facility (SERRF) in Long Beach
are both owned by separate authorities and created by Joint Powers Agreements. Sanitation District No. 2 jointly oversees the
Commerce facility with the City of Commerce and the SERRF with the City of Long Beach. The SERRF is operated by a
private contractor.

The largest gas-to-energy facility is located at the Puente Hills Landfill. The facility produces approximately 50 megawatts
of power, which would meet the energy requirements of approximately 100,000 homes. Edison International buys most of the
facility’s energy output.

Closed Los Angeles County Landfills are Mission Canyon, Palos Verdes and Spadra. Privately-owned Bradley West
Landfill is also closed.

Source: Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts

By 1947, there were more than 300,000 backyard trash incinerators throughout Los Angeles County - the primary means of
waste disposal for many homes. These had come to be seen, however, as significant contributors to the increasing serious problem
of air pollution in the region. Efforts to ban backyard incinerators, however, were met with fierce opposition by homeowners.
Incinerator owners believed that oil refineries were the true polluters and little had been done to curtail these. Cities nevertheless
began establishing residential trash collection operations and, by 1958, backyard incinerators were completely banned.

In 1961, Sam Yorty ran for mayor of Los Angeles with the promise to end the inconvenience of separating refuse. After his election,
a Los Angeles city ordinance was passed that eliminated the requirement to sort recyclables.

During the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, in just 22 days, event participants, including athletes, trainers, coaches and
spectators, produced 6.5 million pounds of trash - more than six pounds per person per day.

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